As kindergarten through 12th grade students to return to classes Monday, the Washington County School District will still be working to fill holes in special education teaching and bus driver positions amid population growth that is already stressing new building capacity.

“We’re growing like crazy,” school district spokesman Steve Dunham said Friday, citing new housing in Little Valley and Washington Fields as a particular driver of increased head counts.

The brand new Majestic Fields Elementary opening just off Washington Fields Road in the southern part of Washington City’s confines is full enough that the school district closed its boundaries at Tuesday night’s board meeting, and reopened the boundaries for Crimson View farther to the southwest.

“Last year, when we established the boundaries – we always factor in room to grow,” Dunham said. “(But) we’re growing so dang fast. … (Majestic Fields is) 100 over what we projected.”

New students and their parents explore the Mrs. Fordham Portuguese dual immersion class at the ...more

New students and their parents explore the Mrs. Fordham Portuguese dual immersion class at the Majestic Fields Elementary School during back-to-school activities Friday, Aug. 11, 2017.

Kevin Jenkins / The Spectrum & Daily News

The intermediate schools are built for a capacity of 1,000 students and Sunset Intermediate is 100 students above its projected cap, he said. Desert Hills Intermediate is approaching the limit and Desert Hills High School is expected to hit 1,500 students during the year.

“We’re looking at finding a site for another elementary in (the Fields / Little Valley) area right now with the hope it can be open for 2019,” Dunham said.

Construction is also well under way on the Crimson Cliffs Middle School a mile east of Crimson View Elementary to handle eighth- and ninth-graders there next year. A high school and intermediate school on the same “cone site” will follow in 2019.

A construction worker at Crimson Cliffs Middle School is shown Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2017. The school ...more

A construction worker at Crimson Cliffs Middle School is shown Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2017. The school is scheduled to open by fall 2018.

Kevin Jenkins / The Spectrum & Daily News

And the non-district St. George Academy charter high school opening in the area between Crimson Cliffs and Majestic Fields after a year’s project delay expects to accommodate another 500 students, according to its representatives.

The school district still has 10 teaching openings, mostly in special education, and to keep talented educators it has raised the starting salary for new elementary teachers to $40,000 to be more competitive with the Wasatch Front. The district is also offering signing bonuses, Dunham said.

“We had a couple of good teachers leave for higher paying jobs up north,” he said. “We’re short on bus drivers, too. … We could hire 11 to 15 new ones right away; ideally we’d like to have perhaps 20.”

In the meantime, the district has condensed some bus routes and has notified parents – particularly in Hurricane – that child pick ups could be “slightly later” because of added stops. And the buses will be more full than they typically have been.

Employees who bring in drivers who stick with the job will get referral bonuses, he said.

As part of the district’s growth strategy, it has made the addition of two portable buildings a standard procedure for each new brick-and-mortar building to provide flexibility.

“Each one can have two classrooms, so that gives us the ability to add four classrooms. It provides room to expand or contract the size of the school,” Dunham said.

In the case of Legacy Elementary, which opened downtown earlier this year to relocate students from East Elementary when that building was sold to Dixie State University, the portables can serve as space for programs that weren’t available at East, he said.

With the “extreme growth” of Water Canyon in Hildale, the district expected to pull one of the portable class buildings from Majestic Fields and send it out to the remote county school. But since Majestic Fields is so full, the portable will come from another school that doesn’t need both of theirs.

“If we build that (portable addition) into the cost of the (initial construction), it doesn’t mean extra cost to us later,” Dunham said.

Children visit with the Mustang mascot at the new Majestic Fields Elementary School during ...more

Children visit with the Mustang mascot at the new Majestic Fields Elementary School during back-to-school activities Friday, Aug. 11, 2017.

Kevin Jenkins / The Spectrum & Daily News

Thursday and Friday, schools throughout the district welcomed parents and their youngsters to tour classrooms and receive orientation for a return to classes during the coming week.

Majestic Fields’ back to school night was actually a first introduction for its families. The elementary will also expand the district’s dual-immersion offerings with Portuguese as an addition to the five Chinese and three Spanish immersion efforts.

A construction worker at Crimson Cliffs Middle School is shown Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2017. The school ...more

A construction worker at Crimson Cliffs Middle School is shown Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2017. The school is scheduled to open by fall 2018.

Kevin Jenkins / The Spectrum & Daily News

The classes will be offered to first-graders, and a second-grade class will be created next year.

“We work with the state Office of Education in deciding,” Dunham said. “Portuguese really is one of those up-and-coming languages in the world markets and industry.”